Pilot Project Program

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ABSTRACT (PILOT PROJECT PROGRAM) The Pilot Project Program (PPP) is critical to the ability of the Center for Community Health: Addressing Regional Maryland Environmental Determinants of Disease (CHARMED) to achieve its central goals of fostering innovative interdisciplinary research in environmental health, translating knowledge into action to address community environmental challenges in the Maryland region, and nurturing and supporting the next generation of environmental scientists. Funding pilot grants represents a major strategy for promoting and supporting community-scientist partnerships, seeding emerging research areas, driving development of novel scientific approaches, and supporting translational research in environmental health research that could evolve into independently funded research. The Specific Aims of the PPP are to: 1) To foster and support research that addresses environmental health challenges of communities in the Maryland region; 2) facilitate the dissemination of findings from CHARMED-supported Pilot Projects to relevant stakeholders; and 3) evaluate the effectiveness and impact of the PPP. To achieve these goals, the PPP will provide pilot project funding for four types of research proposals: 1) Community-Engaged Research (CEnR) Awards, which will be awarded to any JHU or university faculty in the Maryland region working together with community partners on projects designed and conducted with the active participation of said partners; 2) Career Development Awards (CD), which will promote and support the success of the careers of Early Stage and Mid-career Investigators in community- engaged environmental health research; 3) New Direction Awards (ND), which will support high impact, innovative projects that focus on the scientific themes of the Center, especially those which lead to the pursuit of multi-investigator grants; which will be awarded to established investigators from non-environmental health disciplines who intend to expand their research to include environmental health research; 4) Rapid Response Pilot Project Awards (RRP), which will enable investigators to address emergent environmental concerns (e.g. hurricanes, COVID-19, oil spills) and or to generate preliminary data for grant submissions or resubmissions to enhance their chances of success. Applications will receive high priority if they address important community concerns, are likely to lead to extramural funding, utilize one or more facility cores, and or bring innovative approaches to the field. As all pilot project grant awardees will be expected to become Center members and participate in all Center activities, we anticipate that this funding mechanism will greatly expand the community- engaged research activities of the Center by fostering an ecosystem of innovative research in environmental health focused on the main scientific themes of the Center.